And so London no longer has its anti-racist festival. Again, we knew this kind of Toryboy gesture politics was on its way, but even we didn't realise quite how near this would be to the top of his in-tray: axing the theme of a festival actually set up in response to a number of racist attacks, including the Lawrence murder in relation to which Johnson's own pronouncements over the years have been so shameful. It was, of course, a move warmly applauded from a predictable quarter, as well as one that would have no doubt been cleared by Central Office.

But did he really not have more important things to worry about in his first few weeks than bolstering his rep as posterboy of the unhinged old-skool right ? Or did he worry that he might have dimmed that rep by casting a few empty words, before the election, in the vague direction of inclusion ?